


Cliffhanger part 2: Baby Baby

by AauntyPasta



Series: Cliffhanger [2]
Category: Las Vegas (TV 2003)
Genre: Childbirth, Cliffhanger, F/M, Las Vegas Wedding, May/December Relationship, Missing Wife, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-23 00:23:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18538504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AauntyPasta/pseuds/AauntyPasta
Summary: When Delinda went into labor at Cooper’s memorial, she was rushed to the hospital where the baby was born prematurely. Will the baby survive? Or will Delinda and Danny find themselves mourning their child instead of their boss and friend. Ed returns to Las Vegas to see his new grandchild and hopefully reclaim his wife.





	Cliffhanger part 2: Baby Baby

“Mr. Cooper?!” Nina exclaimed in surprise as the man in question strode into the hotel. 

“Something wrong, Nina?” Cooper stopped. 

“The plane crashed,” Nina said.

“What plane?”

“The Montecito jet,” Nina replied. “Where were you?”

“I heard,” Cooper said. “I was in Las Angeles. Has the wedding started yet?” He was dressed in his tux, having changed before leaving LA.

“We thought you were on the jet,” she told him. “They think you’re dead.”

“Oh, boy,” he said as he rubbed his head. “Are they even still having it?”

“They turned it into a memorial service,” Nina explained. “And they’re talking like the Montecito is cursed.”

“Why?”

“Because the last two owners died under unusual circumstances,” Nina said. “If you go in there, please try to not freak them out too much.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------

 

The clapping cut through the silence after the ending of the song and the room turned as one to see who would dare encroach on the grief of losing their friend. Cooper stood, dressed for a wedding, in the back of the room. Polly screamed and Piper fainted. “Am I late?” he asked.

Delinda gaped and suddenly felt a wave of pain from her abdomen, almost as if the child she carried in her womb was surprised as well.

“He’s alive!” her mother exclaimed from a seat next to her.

Delinda cried out with the pain. “Something’s wrong,” she said as Jillian turned to her daughter. “The baby!”

The world began to swim and she felt faint but she clung to consciousness. “Danny,” she breathed. She lifted her hand and it was covered in blood. “Danny!” she said emphatically. 

“Oh my God!” Jillian exclaimed as Alison stood next to her and pulled out her phone. “Somebody call an ambulance! Hurry!”

Cooper rushed forward as Danny bounded to her side. “The baby?” Danny asked as he took her hand.

Delinda nodded through the pain. Cooper stopped at her side as he heard a familiar voice talking to 911. He glanced up to find Alison on her cell phone asking for an ambulance.

“Montecito Hotel,” she said. “Main ballroom. That’s right. Thank you.” She flipped her phone closed and her eyes met his for an instant before she looked away. “They’ll be here in five minutes,” she said as she leaned over the tiny group.

Delinda cried out again. Alison grasped Jillian’s shoulder. “Delinda,” she said. “I’ve been through this. Just stay calm and breathe. OK?” Delinda nodded. “Everything will be fine.”

She gave Jillian’s shoulder quick, gentle squeeze. Mike was herding everyone from the room so Alison now went to see if Piper was OK.

Danny held one hand and Jillian the other as they waited the five agonizing minutes before the ambulance got there. Delinda did a good job of staying calm as they loaded her on the stretcher and headed out with her. When Cooper looked around, he saw Alison sitting next to Piper. Piper was awake and acknowledged his presence.

“Come on, Jillian,” he told Delinda’s mother. “I’ll drive you to the hospital.”

Jillian released a breath. “I think I’m OK to drive myself,” she replied. “Perhaps you should be having it out with the Missus.”

Cooper looked around to find Alison and Piper gone. “She’ll still be here when I get back,” he replied. “And it’ll keep.” He gently grasped her arm and pulled her the way that the paramedics had just taken Delinda.

 

\------------------------------

 

“So why does no one know anything about the lovely Mrs. Cooper?” Jillian asked as she sat in the passenger seat of Cooper’s vintage truck.

Cooper sighed. “She left me a long time ago,” he said. “When our daughter was born.”

“You have a daughter?” Jillian smiled. “How old is she?”

“Six,” Cooper replied. “She was born after we…” he shook his head.

“After you broke up?” 

Cooper nodded.

“And you never divorced?”

“I was hoping to reconcile,” he said. “I still hope that will happen.”

“Sometimes you just have to admit that it’s over and move on,” Jillian said.

“Maybe,” Cooper said as he pulled into the hospital parking lot. “But hopefully not today.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

“She’s dilated eight centimeters,” Danny told them when they arrived. Jillian immediately went to her daughter. “They think the baby will be born before midnight.”

“That fast?” Cooper asked.

“That fast,” Danny replied. “She’s at 30 weeks. That’s…”

“Seven and a half months,” Cooper finished for him. “It’s early. But not so early the baby wouldn’t have a chance.”

“Is Alison really your wife?”

Cooper nodded. “She’s really my wife.”

“What did she mean when she said she’d been through this?” Danny asked.

“She was pregnant and had our son at 25 weeks,” Cooper said.

“What happened?”

Cooper shook his head. “He died.”

“I’m sorry,” Danny said.

“Thanks,” Cooper said. 

“Was that before it all started to go bad?” Danny asked.

Cooper could only nod. “You’d better get in there,” he said with a gesture to the room where Jillian had disappeared. “You wouldn’t want to miss it.”

“You’ll be here?”

Cooper nodded. “I’ll be here.”

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

Twelve minutes after midnight, the baby was born crying. It was a weak cry, but she was crying. The baby girl was shown to her mother and father and whisked away to the NICU as her parents put their heads together in relief. Jillian left the room to find Cooper. She announced the news to the waiting room full of Montecito employees which included Piper, Mike and Sam but not Cooper. “Where is he?” she asked Piper.

“He went to have a cigar in the courtyard,” she replied.

Cooper was pacing and taking puffs of the cigar in the cool Las Vegas night when she joined him in the outdoor courtyard. “It’s a girl,” Jillian said. “Almost four pounds.”

Cooper smiled. “Good to hear.”

Jillian sat at a table where Cooper joined her. “Danny told me about your son,” Jillian said. 

Cooper took one last drag of the cigar before putting it out in the ashtray. “I hope I didn’t scare him.”

Jillian shook her head. “On the contrary,” she said. “It made him more optimistic.”

Cooper smiled. “I thought it would be ok for both of us, but then she got pregnant again just a few weeks later,” he said. “She moved to Cheyenne to be near her parents. I tried to be there, but I was still hurting.”

“I see,” Jillian said. “You weren’t there when your daughter was born.”

He snorted. “I was in San Francisco trying to finish a deal and didn’t make it back until she was out of the hospital.”

Before either could say another word, Mike stuck his head out. “You’d better get in here,” he said. “Something’s wrong.”

“Delinda?” Jillian said as she and Cooper stood.

Mike shook his head. “The baby,” he replied.

“Oh God,” Jillian said and rushed into the hospital.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

She’d stopped breathing. 

In the NICU, the baby had stopped breathing and all hell had broken loose as they fought to get her breathing again. Now, as a crying Delinda and shocked Danny watched, she still struggled to breathe even though she was hooked to a ventilator.

Cooper and Jillian rushed into the room seconds after they got the baby’s breathing regulated and in time for the news.

“She’s not breathing on her own,” Dr. Muncie told them. “Her lungs are underdeveloped.”

“Is she going to be OK?” Delinda asked.

“We’ve got her on some drugs that will accelerate their growth,” she told them. “All we can do now is wait and pray.”

“Alison said she’d be fine,” Delinda said. “When I talked to her a few minutes ago.” She looked at Danny. “She said to just make sure she knows we love her and she’ll fight.”

Jillian hugged her daughter as Cooper squeezed her hand. “She got a name?” he asked.

“Jillian Laura Edith,” Danny said. “After Delinda’s mom, my mom and her dad.”

“I think we’ll call her Eddie, though,” Delinda said with a smile as Jillian rolled her eyes.

“Why don’t you two go back to the Montecito and get some sleep,” Danny said.

“I’m not leaving,” Jillian said with determination.

“I would stay, too,” Cooper said. “But I would just be in the way.” He looked at them each in turn. “And I need to stop putting something off.”

“The talk with Alison,” Delinda put in. 

Cooper nodded. “When she starts breathing on her own,” he began. “Give her a kiss for me.”

“I will,” Delinda said and kissed him on the cheek. 

Danny shook his hand. “Good luck with Alison,” he said.

Cooper left the room and stopped on the other side of the door. He smiled and nodded at the orderly standing just outside, a mask covering his face as he waited with a clipboard.

After Cooper stalked down the hall, the orderly adjusted his mask and took a breath before looking in the window at his daughter, wife, and newborn granddaughter. Ed Deline lowered the mask just enough to scratch his nose before covering it back up.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

The beep of her daughter’s heart beat was the only sound in the room as Delinda sat alone, dozing next to the baby’s incubator. Every so often, Delinda would sit up to look at her as she struggled to breathe.

After one such check, she sat down as the door opened and an orderly entered, his face covered with a mask. She scrunched her nose as she noticed that there was something familiar about him. “Hiya, sweetheart.”

“Daddy?” Delinda said.

He pulled the mask down to show that she was right. “How’s she doing?”

“Holding her own,” Delinda said as he hugged her. They turned to watch her for a minute. “Why are you here?”

“I heard you and Danny were getting married,” he said. “I was going to sneak in and watch you say your vows.” He reached in the incubator to touch his granddaughter. She grasped his finger. “Man does she have some grip.” He smiled. “Then, the Montecito jet crashed and all heck broke lose.” He looked back at Delinda, his finger still in the baby’s grasp. “I was not about to leave without seeing my first grandchild.”

Ed stroked the tiny hand before pulling his finger from her grip and sitting down with Delinda. “Overheard a few things while I was hanging around in the hall near the waiting room,” he said. “What’s going on with Vic Manning?” Delinda told him as many details as she knew. “You like this Cooper,” he asked. “Don’t you?”

Delinda nodded her head. “Since you couldn’t be here,” she said. “He been a good surrogate father.” She glanced back at the baby. “I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

“Then let me see what I can do for him,” Ed said then turned the conversation back to the baby. “What’s her name?”

“Jillian Laura Edith,” Delinda told him. “But we’re going to call her Eddie.”

Ed smiled. “Aw, that’s nice,” he said. “Where is Mr. Cooper now?”

“Hopefully patching things up with his wife,” she said and told him of her meeting the woman a few days before.

“I’m hoping to do that myself,” Ed told her.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Delinda said.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

Detective Max Dillon walked down the corridor to the room where Delinda Deline was with her newborn baby girl. As he approached, a doctor came out of the room and headed down the corridor the other direction. Dillon opened the door and stalked into the room.

“Where is he?” he demanded.

“Where is who?” Delinda asked innocently. “And what makes you think you can barge in here and…”

“I am looking for your father, Miss Deline,” he said. “If he hasn’t been here, he will be. I intend to be here when he shows up.”

“Like my father would really show up,” Delinda laughed. “He’s smart enough to know you would be here waiting for him.”

“Yeah,” Dillon said. “But what father is going to miss the chance to see his first grandchild.” He stopped to look over at the baby. “He’ll be here.”

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

The floral arrangement carried by the delivery person was so huge that no one could see what he looked like. Every camera he passed caught nothing but the mass of flowers. No one gave the man a second thought since bouquets had been arriving for the weddings and then memorial service.

This bouquet was headed for the 32nd floor. He knocked on the door to room 3247 and the door opened. “Delivery for Jillian Deline,” he said.

Jillian tried to see him through the massive arrangement. “Ed?”

Ed looked around the flowers and smiled at his wife.

Jillian stepped aside to let him come in and closed the door. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think?” he said. “I came to see our daughter get married.”

“You know the police are probably waiting for you,” Jillian said.

“They were at the hospital but I gave them the slip,” he said.

“If you saw the baby,” Jillian said. “Then what are you doing here?”

“Two reasons,” Ed began. “One, Delinda asked me to see what I could find out about the whole Victor Manning situation.”

“And two?”

“I wanted to get my wife back,” he said as he pulled her close.

“I can’t live on the run,” she said as he nuzzled her neck. “And I want to be around for our new granddaughter.”

“That’s why I bought a great house in Bolivia,” he said. “No…” 

“Extradition treaty with the US,” Jillian finished for him.

“Las Vegas is just a plane ride away,” he said and pulled away to look her in the eye. “They can fly down to see us whenever they want and you can fly up to visit for every holiday.”

“Tempting,” Jillian said. “But no.”

“You don’t have to make a decision right now,” Ed said. “I know you’re going to want to hang around for awhile to help with the baby. I promised Delinda that I’d help with the Montecito ownership question.” He ran his hands up and down her arms.

“It’s over,” Jillian said and she pulled his cap down over his eyes. “Just go now before I change my mind…”

“So you’ll think about it?” He pushed the cap back up.

“… and call the police,” Jillian finished.

“I’m hurt,” Ed said. “But I’ll be around for awhile. I’ll change your mind if it kills me.”

“And I just might,” Jillian said as she opened the door for him.

He pulled his hat down and stalked out the door.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

“Do you mind if I join you?” Jillian asked.

Alison looked up at the other woman and waved her to a seat across from her. The table overlooked the casino and Alison had been paying more attention to the casino below than she had been paying to her menu. “Not at all,” she said.

“I heard that you’re getting a divorce, too,” Jillian said as she took a seat. “Why don’t you let me buy you dinner?”

“I was just going to make you that offer,” Alison said with a smile then nodded. “Finally after seven years, he signed the papers.”

Alison was steeled for another ‘that’s too bad’ and was surprised when Jillian instead said, “Good for you.”

“What?”

“Good for you,” Jillian repeated and took the menu from the waitress. “We don’t need our men to be fulfilled.”

Alison smiled at her. “No we don’t,” she said confidently.

“You never have to see him again if you don’t want to,” Jillian said.

“That wouldn’t exactly be true,” Alison put in. “He’s going to want shared custody.”

“You have a child together?”

Alison nodded. “A daughter,” she said. “Amelia.”

Jillian leaned forward. “Don’t let her talk you into getting back together.”

“This is all she’s known,” Alison said as she opened her menu to make her choice for dinner.

“How old was she when you and he split?” Jillian asked as she made her decision and set the menu aside.

“She hadn’t been born yet,” Alison said. “He was on a business trip in San Francisco and didn’t make it back until she was two days old. I told him to get out.”

“Did you let him see her at all?” Jillian asked.

“We set up a custody agreement and he visits her all the time,” Alison said. “At least until I took her to South America a few years ago. The nanny would escort her for summers and holidays with her dad.”

“What caused the split in the first place?”

“Things started to go bad when our son died,” Alison replied.

Before Jillian could ask any more, Piper slid to a stop by their table. “Alison,” she said with a pleading tone. “I need your help.”

“What’s wrong Piper,” Alison asked.

“Mike and I have to get married before his family goes home tomorrow,” she said. “James Blunt left and we need someone to sing for our wedding.” She bit her lip. “Cooper mentioned that you sing. Could you please?”

She glanced at Jillian who shrugged. “For you,” Alison said. “Sure.”

“One other thing,” she said as she twisted the ring on her finger. “Delinda was going to stand up for me. Would you?”

“Is Cooper standing for Mike?” Alison asked.

She nodded. “I know it’s short notice, but you’re not leaving until tomorrow and we were going to do it tonight.”

“What time?” Jillian asked as Alison buried her face in her hands.

“Eight o’clock,” she answered.

Alison peaked from behind her hands as Piper’s earnest face. “I told Delinda I would come visit her at seven,” she said. “But I’ll be there. Where and what do you want me to wear?”

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

“They had a son?” Delinda asked with surprise. “And Cooper told you that?”

“I know,” Danny said. “It was weird. He’s never opened up like that before.”

“Probably because of Alison’s arrival,” Delinda pointed out. “And our baby’s birth. What happened to him?”

“He was born at 25 weeks,” Danny told her. “He died in a Denver children’s hospital a few days later.”

“Losing a child can often break up a couple,” Delinda said thoughtfully. “Do you think that will happen to us if we lose little Eddie?”

Danny shook his head and leaned to put his forehead against hers. “Not a chance,” he said. “Because we’re not going to lose her.”

One of the machines on their daughter chose that moment to start beeping and Delinda started to cry. The nurse came in quickly and checked the machine before smiling. “Nothing to worry about,” she said then smiled up at Delinda. “She’s breathing on her own.” Delinda’s tears turned to joy.

For several minutes, the machine beeped in the same way and the doctor, when she came in, ordered that the breathing tube be removed. “We still want to keep a close eye on her,” the doctor said. “And she’ll be on the bi-pap machine for a few hours yet to help her breathe.” She looked up at Danny and Delinda. “But I think she’s going to be just fine.”

“What’d I tell you?” Danny said. “We’re not going to lose her.”

Delinda smiled and let her head fall on Danny’s chest.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

Alison was picking at her food as Jillian watched. “You know,” Jillian said. “Scuttlebutt has it that you were with Cooper half of the night and into the early afternoon.” She stopped to take a bite as Alison looked up. “Were you discussing terms of your divorce?”

“No,” Alison replied.

“Were you…?” she asked, trusting that the other woman knew what she meant.

Alison nodded.

“Did it change anything?”

“Yes and no.”

“What does that mean?”

Alison sighed. “He gave me my divorce,” she said. “But I almost don’t want it anymore.”

“Because of the sex?”

“Because he’s right,” she said. “I still love him. I want to wake up with him next to me. I want our daughter to crawl into bed between us when she has a nightmare and cuddle down.” She wiped away a tear. “I want to give him another son. Or, at least have fun trying.”

When she looked up at Jillian, she could see that the other woman was on the verge of tears. “That’s the kind of life we had when Delinda was a kid,” she said.

Alison sniffed and started picking at the food again. “We never got the chance to live that life,” she said. “Is it worth it?”

Jillian looked at her for a minute before answering. “Yes,” she said finally. “Yes, it was.”

“Then why did you end it?”

“Because I thought it would be better that way,” Jillian replied. “He’s on the run from the law for murder, you know.”

“So Delinda told me,” Alison said. “Does this mean we want our men back?”

Jillian thought good and hard. “Let’s take a few months,” she said. “And see what happens.” She shrugged. “At the very least make them sweat a little.”

Alison chuckled then held up a pinky. “Pinky swear,” she said. “We leave them behind for at least six months. Unless something drastic happens like a death in the family or the like. Then we make a final decision.”

Jillian smiled and hooked her pinky in Alison’s. “Deal,” she said with a smile.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

Cooper went into Danny’s office and retrieved the ring box with the ring Mike got for Piper in it from the desk, but realized there was someone sitting in the office chair. Slowly, it turned to show a man that Cooper recognized as Ed Deline.

“This office hasn’t been yours for four months,” Cooper said to the man.

“Glad you put Danny in as president,” Ed told him. “Delinda says you have a problem. I may be able to help you with it.”

“How so?”

Ed threw down a folded paper on the desk and Cooper eyed him warily before picking it up. “Casey Manning’s will,” Cooper said. “Where’d you get this?”

“Let’s just say I acquired it,” Ed replied. “You have a way with your people. Delinda is pretty fond of you.” He stopped to push himself from the chair. “Seems that Sam is, too.” He handed Cooper a business card he pulled from his pocket. “Take it to this guy,” Ed told him. “He’s a document expert. He’ll examine it for you.”

“You think it’s fake?” Cooper asked.

“He’ll tell you that,” Ed replied.

Cooper nodded to Ed. “Thanks,” he said.

“Least I could do for the guy who’s been taking care of my little girl,” Ed replied with a smile.

 

LVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLVLV

 

Six months later

 

The kitchen was filling quickly with smoke and it poured through the open window where Ed noticed it and came running. “Damn,” he cursed. “I just wish I had taken the time to learn how to cook.” He coughed as he moved the pan from the stove to the sink and opened the tap to drown the smoking food.

“I’m surprised you haven’t starved to death,” came a voice from behind him.

He turned to find Jillian standing in the doorway looking at him with amusement.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in surprise.

“I could go if you want,” she said and turned as if she would do it.

Ed leapt forward. “No, no,” he said as he grasped her arm. “Don’t go. Never leave me again.” She turned back to look at him. “What made you change your mind?”

“My new friend Alison,” she said with a smile. “We decided to wait six months and see what happened before we made things permanent. Then she came to the casino a couple of months ago and she was pregnant… with twins.”

“Huh,” Ed said. “And you waited a couple of months to do anything?”

“I had to help Dee and Danny get settled in our house with the baby,” Jillian said. “Then I had to be there when they finally got married.”

Ed smiled. “So they finally did it, huh?”

Jillian nodded. “I’ll stay on one condition,” she said. Ed looked at her expectantly. “You never let anything come between us again.”

“I promise,” Ed said. “And if I break that promise for anyone less than our daughter or granddaughter or any other grandchildren, I will take my punishment like a man.”

“Good,” Jillian smiled. “Let’s go to the café down the beach and get something to eat. Then we can come back and celebrate with mind-blowing sex.”

“Delinda put those thoughts in your head?” Ed asked as she took his hand and led him out of the house.

“No,” she replied. “Alison.” She stopped to look at her husband. “How do you think she got those twins?”

Ed could only smile at the thought.


End file.
